Here’s when you know you’ve enjoyed a stellar career: You make the Chase, you’ve won a race, scored double-digit top-10 figures – and it’s still the worst season of your career.
That’s Denny Hamlin’s predicament right now. By most accounts, any other driver would chew off his right arm for the kind of season Hamlin has “enjoyed” in 2011.
Still, his one win pales in comparison to his series-high eight of last season. And even with four races remaining, his 12 top 10s are guaranteed to be a career low.
Still, there are targets at which to aim for Hamlin – most notably, a top-10 points finish, which will in turn lead to a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony invite.
At Talladega, Hamlin scored his second consecutive top-10 finish to move up to 11th in points. He now sits two points behind 10th-place Jeff Gordon with his best track on deck: Martinsville Speedway.
Hamlin boasts four wins, eight top fives and 10 top 10s at Martinsville. Prior to a 12th-place finish in April, Hamlin had six consecutive top fives at Martinsville, which included the four wins and a runner-up finish.
If Denny Hamlin doesn’t win, it will snap his streak of winning at least one short-track race and at least once in his home state every year since 2008.
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